President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mr. Edward Lametek Adamu, a
Christian from Gombe State, as the new deputy governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to replace Mr. Suleiman Barau who retired last
month.

Adamu, who was once the Director in charge of the Strategy
Management Department of the CBN, is currently the Director of Human
Resources with the Bank, a position he has held since 2016. It was gathered that the deputy governor nominee has more than 25 years
experience working with the central bank, which has seen him serving in
almost every aspect of its operations.

However, his nomination as usual would be subject to the approval by the Senate. Adamu, who is 57 years, hails from Kaltungo Local Government Area in Gombe State. He
holds a Quantity Surveying degree from the Ahmadu Bello University
(ABU), Zaria, and is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity
Surveyors.

He is also a frequent presenter at professional
conferences, seminars and symposia, especially in the areas of
leadership, human capital management, project management, construction,
strategy and risk management. Adamu is in addition an active
member of other professional bodies such as the the Project Management
Institute, USA; International Knowledge Management Institute, USA;
International Society for Performance Improvement, USA; and the
Association of Project Managers, UK.

According to ThisDay, In 2012, he was appointed
Director of the Strategy Management Department of the CBN in recognition
of his depth of operational knowledge of the Bank’s mandate and core
responsibilities as well as the breadth of CBN’s strategy implementation
experience. In that role, he was said to have demonstrated an
ability to quickly identify and proffer realistic and workable solutions
to complex and competing demands of the various sections of the Bank.

In
addition, the deputy governor nominee was responsible for working with
the CBN board in ensuring that the Bank had a clearly articulated
strategy that would ensure the delivery of its mandate, organisational
alignment and focus on strategy – from development to execution – by
integrating strategy-focused concepts, principles, and best practices
into the fabric, cadence, and processes of the organisation.

To
effectively undertake the responsibility, he worked with Messrs
Palladium Consultants in developing the first Strategy Execution
Framework in the Bank in 2012. Also, he was responsible for the organisational transformation programme of the Bank. As
the Director of Strategy, he was also a member of the Monetary Policy
Implementation Committee and the Financial Services Regulatory
Coordination Committee, as well as an observer at the Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC) meetings.

In 2016, Adamu was appointed Director,
Human Resources Department of the Bank to give effect to the human
resources transformation programme initiated during his role as
Director, Strategy Management. Until his nomination as deputy
governor, he was tasked with developing the human capital assets of the
central bank to be more innovative in dealing with current challenges,
and becoming quickly adaptive to future changing needs.

Still No Confirmation Process

Despite
his nomination as deputy governor-designate, Adamu would most likely
face the same fate as other nominees of the president, as hopes that the
Senate may soon consider the nominations of four members of the CBN’s
MPC were dashed yesterday, when the legislative body doubled down on its
position not to consider any nominations from the president not
specified in the Constitution.

Senate President Bukola Saraki,
speaking at plenary session, said the Senate remains bound by its
resolution taken in March 2017. The MPC was unable to hold its
first meeting of this year last Monday, following its inability to form a
quorum with eight positions on the 12-member committee vacant.

The
meeting is crucial and enables the CBN to carry out one of its primary
roles of setting interest rates and formulating monetary policies to
ensure price stability and engender growth. Owing to the
inability of the MPC to hold its meeting, the CBN governor Godwin
Emefiele, announced on Monday that the monetary policy rate, among other
key ratios, decided by the committee at its November meeting, will be
retained.

The confirmation process for Buhari’s nominations of
Prof. Adeola Festus Adenikinju, Dr. Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi, Dr. Robert
Chikwendu Asogwa and Dr. Asheikh A. Maidugu as members of the MPC has
been stalled by the executive-senate impasse over the confirmation of
the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

Other nominations into top positions at
the central bank that were also affected by the Senate’s resolution
included the deputy governor-designate of the CBN, Ms. Aisha Ahmad, and
five non-executive directors for the Bank. Magu has been retained
in an acting capacity despite his rejection twice by the Senate, which
declined to confirm him as the substantive head of the anti-graft
agency.

The impasse was made worse by Vice-President Yemi
Osinbajo’s comment that the position of the EFCC chairman does not
require the confirmation of the Senate, as it was not specified in the
constitution, compelling the Senate to state that it will seek legal
interpretation of his remark.

Given its stance, the Senate
resolved to suspend the confirmation process for all nominees of the
president, arguing that the executive cannot choose what laws to obey
and what laws not to obey. Saraki’s statement wednesday confirmed
recent reports by THISDAY that the upper legislative chamber was not
willing to budge on its resolution on the matter.

The Senate
President did not specifically refer to the MPC, but his comment was
made in reaction to a point of order raised by Senator Mao Ohuabunwa
regarding nominations into the board of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC).

Ohuabunwa had observed that while the board of
the commission had been inaugurated and was functional, about three
states out of the nine oil-producing states were not represented on the
board.

Their nominations were affected by the Senate’s resolution.

The
senator, however, appealed that the outstanding NDDC nominees be
exempted from the resolution, as the process for their confirmation was
already ongoing before the resolution was passed to suspend the
confirmation process.

“I am bringing this before you to consider
and allow the committee to complete the screening, as these two or three
states are left unattended to. Things are moving on, the commission is
working and that is why I have come to you this morning to exempt NNDC
from that resolution,” Ohuabunwa said.

Saraki, however, ruled
that the appeal could only be considered if the process had already
begun before the resolution was taken.

“I am happy that you made
reference to the fact that we all here at the Senate passed a resolution
on this matter. The issue you just raised, we will look at it to see if
the exercise started before the resolution.

“I know this
resolution we took it in March, I remember at the end of March last
year. So the secretariat should check the records.

“If it
(confirmation process) had started before (the resolution), we will look
into it, but if it had started after, except that resolution is
rescinded we are all bound by that resolution,” Saraki said.